Lady Tigers fall to Cloud County

For the second game in a row the Cowley College women’s basketball team found itself facing a huge second half deficit, rallied to make things interesting, but came up short.

A pair of scoring droughts for Cowley led to its demise as they lost to Cloud County Community College 79-65 Friday in the first game of the Hutchinson Classic.

Leading 8-7 with 14:30 left in the first half; Cowley went scoreless for the next five minutes as the Lady Thunderbirds went on a 13-0 run to lead 20-8. Trailing 35-26 at the end of the first half, Cowley went scoreless for nearly four minutes to start the second half as Cloud County’s lead grew to 43-26.

Cowley used a 14-2 run to cut Cloud County’s lead to 45-40 and got within four points of the Lady Thunderbirds (55-51) after a basket by Elena Yankova with 6:54 remaining. However, the Lady Tigers could not cool off Cloud’s Amy Chapman, who hit six three pointers and finished with a game-high 20 points in the win. Chapman’s fifth three pointer pushed the Lady Thunderbirds lead back to double digits (70-59) and helped Cloud County hold on for the 14-point win.

Neasha Haynes led a balanced Lady Tiger attack with 14 points a piece, while Yankova finished with 13.

The Lady Tigers are now 1-2 on the season. Cowley will play Classic host Hutchinson Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The game can be heard on KACY 102.5 FM.